Upgrading the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to Ice Cream Sandwich

I have had this tablet (the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus) for slightly under a week and being the hasty person that I am, I have already updated it to Android 4.0.4, Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus P6200. Photo courtesy of GSMArena.com

Being the busy person that I am, one week is not enough time to review the tablet so spare the review for another day.

Why the upgrade?

Most of my friends and classmates were asking me why I was so quick to update Sasha (I’ve named my tab Sasha, don’t ask me why) yet she was just new and in perfect condition. Well here are my main reasons. Yours may be different (like having had the tab for the last one year, you badly need an upgrade).

1. Honeycomb is soooooo yesterday. When it was unveiled, Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, was specifically designed for tablets. Google only had the tablet owner and user in mind when releasing Honeycomb. Remember one of the few tablets that directly got an upgrade to Jelly Bean on the first day? I am talking of the Motorola Xoom. It was also the first tablet to ship with Honeycomb out of the box. Between the time the Xoom came out and now, much has changed in the dynamic tech scene. Even the ICS I am yapping about is also outdated and has a new sibling. So the primary reason why an upgrade for my lovely Sasha was imminent is for the simple reason that she had to be at least up to date with what is hot in the Android world. Honeycomb on the tab is just so awesome but hey, change has to happen.
2. I am known for such. Upgrades, updates and what have you. In following my aggressive spirit of trying out stuff on any device I lay my hands on, this just had to happen. In fact the tab was lucky it had a whole week of rest before it got “disturbed”.
3. An upgrade of the Galaxy Tab P6200 is on the way. At least for those of us who are outside the Open Austria region (United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Hungary), Samsung is in the process of releasing ICS updates to its whole range of Galaxy branded tablets (the P6200, P6210 and the like). Having already released the Open Austria official firmware, there is no reason why I should just sit and wait for late September or whatever time that big Sam has scheduled an update for my region. Sitting and waiting for the “New firmware update found” announcement on Kies or device notification bar is not my way of doing things. Simply put, with official firmware already out for Open Austria, I just had to it. Well I did.

Why this post?

I easily found the Open Austria update for the Galaxy tab 7.0 Plus on samfirmware.com but there is no clear way of upgrading the tablet in the forums on that site or on XDA Developers. I put this down for all other Galaxy tab 7.0 plus owners like me who want to quickly upgrade to ICS before the scheduled region-specific firmware is released by Samsung later in the year.

Requirements

1. Odin Multi-downloader. Download it here [LINK 1]
2. Official Samsung Android 4.0.4 firmware. Download it here [LINK 2]. There’s an alternative way of downloading the firmware update that is quicker. Find more about it here.
3. Samsung Kies. You need to have this installed on your computer since it has Samsung USB drivers which you will need. Find Samsung Kies on the Samsung website or install it from the Kies mini-CD that you get when you buy any other Samsung mobile device. I used mine from my Galaxy Mini mini-CD. Alternatively, you can download just the drivers here [LINK 3] and install them.
4. Charge your tablet to 100%. I mean 100% not 60 or 70% like in smartphones. Your tablet will just “die” (brick) if it shuts down in the middle of a firmware update due to battery-related issues.
5. Backup all your important stuff. I hadn’t (and still haven’t) rooted my tablet so I used a non-root backup application, App Backup Restore [Google Play Store link]. Transfer all other important data and information from the tablet’s internal memory. Backup your contacts with your Google account. (This is a normal firmware upgrade using official firmware thus all your stuff won’t be lost. I am however recommending a complete backup because you just never know. Secondly, to avoid any hitches like apps force closing and lag, I recommend a full factory reset and cache clearing after the upgrade).
6. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled on your tablet. You can enable USB Debugging in Settings >Developer Options.
7. Remove the SIM card from it’s slot during the upgrade. This is to prevent any chance of phone calls or new texts or other network related activities and notifications from interfering when the device is booting for the first time and the subsequent existing application upgrade process.

Check Part 2 of this post for the procedure here.